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In an interview with APC magazine, Sheridan Jones, the lead marketing manager for Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, confirmed that the company was 'in private betas right now', although he was unable to fix a definite date for the software's completion.

APC reports that the suite features 'a modern black sheen',

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and elements reminiscent of features in iTunes and other iLife applications.

Microsoft has already announced that Office 2008 for the Mac will be significantly different in appearance to Office 2007 on the PC, released in January of this year, in that it will not feature the ribbon interface Microsoft adopted for the Windows edition.

This is largely because of the different structure of the Mac operating system, in which application menu bars appear at the top of the screen, regardless of the location of the application in focus. Under Windows, menus remain attached to the application at all times.

However, as MacUser reported in January, Office 2008 does share a new graphics engine with Office for Windows. Office Art 2.0 provides users with the ability to add professionally designed graphics with a click of a button.

It also sports a visual gallery used for selecting various document elements and has several Mac-only features, such as ledger sheets in Excel and My Day, a stand-alone scheduling application.